


luciferous

by howls



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Prisoner of War, Skywalker Family Drama (Star Wars), The Force Is Weird (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28659447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howls/pseuds/howls
Summary: Mon Mothma handing Luke a list of questions, and giving him the order to interrogate their new prisoner, definitely wasn't in his top five guesses of what he's doing today. Finding out that Vader is the man he's supposed to question really makes Luke wish he had his first cup of caf for the day. He knew this day was coming, the Force assured him so, but Luke really wishes he could've had some warning.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker & The Force
Comments: 15
Kudos: 166
Collections: 2020 Star Wars Luke & Vader Winter Exchange





	luciferous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AJediLikeHisFather](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJediLikeHisFather/gifts).



> This is for the L&V Exchange! This sucker fought me every step of the way, but I hope you enjoy it!

Luke walks down the corridor, his heart several steps behind him beating on the ground. His composure is torn to shreds, and the knowledge that this mission can end in devastation at a moment’s notice.

He reaches for the Force, his closest companion since the moment he was brought into the world, but it is silent, cold to his touch, just like it has been for days. Luke doesn’t remember a moment the Force was reticent like it was never there. It always answered his call or reached out to him on its own. He doesn’t want to admit it, but this terrifies him.

The Force has looked after Luke his entire life. It shielded him when he was caught in a sandstorm, forming a bubble of safety around him until Luke can find his way back to Beru and Owen. At the markets, beings of all sizes would observe him, estimate how much money they could make off him. It will step in and hide him away, guiding him to safety. And later, when Luke is on the cusp of sleep, he will feel those life forms fade away, their cries and pleas swallowed by the Force.

Invisible hands brush his tears away when he feels too much like his body will deconstruct until he joins the stars in the galaxy. The Force will wrap around him while he sits in the sand watching the suns dip past the horizon, waiting to see if his father will come home. It whispers stories to Luke when it becomes too much; of a mother, of a father, of a sister. A family separated. 

_Soon,_ the Force tells him when he’s too little to understand why he couldn’t see them _now_. _Have patience, little light, all will be well._

It was there for him when Biggs left for the academy, and their friends went off to find their lot in life, leaving him behind on the farm. It was there for him when his Aunt and Uncle perished and he had to bury them in the family cemetery. It was there for him when Ben died, leaving him without anyone who knows the Force remotely as he does. The Force has been at his side his entire life, and now it is silent like it was never there at all.

“Luke?” Leia steps in front of him, making him bump into her. It shocks him back to his body, awareness expanding to include the world around him again. She looks up at him, a concerned and irritated look on her face. “Are you alright?” Then, she steps closer, her voice quiet and urgent, “You don’t have to do this. I can tell High Command that—”

“We both know High Command will make me do this, Leia,” Luke interrupts her gently. She steps away with a huff and crosses her arms over her chest, he can sense a sharp, bitter feeling from her in the Force. “The Force is...quiet. I can’t sense anything from it,” he reveals, unwilling to leave Leia without some explanation. 

Leia looks like she swallowed her tongue in shock, or had the misfortune of smelling Han’s jacket again. “It’s _quiet_?! Luke, you know I’m no expert on the Force, but this doesn’t seem normal.” She looks at him with hard eyes. “Do you think it’s because he’s here? That he’s done something?”

“No,” Luke shakes his head. “If he tried to block my connection to the Force I would feel him instead. It’s just...taking a step back. I can still feel it, it just won’t step in right now. I think...I think it wants me to talk to Vader on my own. Well,” he puts his hand under his chin and looks up at the ceiling in thought, “me and the frankly ridiculously long list of questions you want me to ask him.”

She slaps his arm. “Luke!”

“It’s true!” Luke insists, stepping neatly away to avoid her next swat. 

Leia huffs and drops her head in her hands with a groan. She straightens up after a few moments and faces him head-on like she’s not a head shorter than him. “Luke...are you sure? You can leave whenever you want, High Command agreed to that.”

He nods and gestures for them to continue walking. Up ahead, their escorts are stationed at the elevator that will take him directly to their _esteemed_ prisoner. The one on the left looks faintly annoyed but keeps his mouth shut. He’s probably been on the receiving end of Leia’s dressing downs. 

Their time to talk is over. 

“Be careful,” Leia urges him as he steps inside the elevator. “We’ll be waiting for you.” Her face turns fond, her presence in the Force softening for a moment. “Han said to keep your eyes open, and that he expects you back in one piece.”

“I’ll try my best,” Luke promises solemnly, though the grin on his face probably ruins the assurance. Leia certainly doesn't look impressed.

The doors close before they can say anything more. He struggles to breathe, it’s like the air is torn from his lungs. He hasn’t felt this alone in...a very long time.

The escorts stay silent, content to stare blankly forward and leave him alone. Luke knows they were put in place partly to prevent him from running. The deal the Alliance was proposed with is too good to pass up, too good to be true. But High Command had to take their chances, even if it meant they had to sacrifice their poster boy to keep Vader in their cells. In this war, the life of one is not worth the life of billions.

He instinctively reaches for the Force, hoping for some kind of reassurance, and the Force doesn’t reach back.

The elevator chimes with every floor it passes on its way down. Luke tries to match his breathing to it, inhales and exhales, tries to stem his rising apprehension down. It doesn’t work, his mind conjures up every way this can go wrong, tries to work out what Vader wants. Does he know? Luke can’t help but wonder.

The elevator makes a loud, ringing noise as it reaches the floor Vader is held on, and it makes his heart leap into his throat. The doors open to a long, dark hallway. An armored door is at the end, with few lights guiding the way.

“The lights don’t work well this far down,” an escort explains, his voice loud in the silence that surrounds them. “We were able to make the emergency lights connect, and the cell is well lit. Watch your step, kid.”

Luke steps out of the elevator and is struck when a presence, small but powerful, focuses on him. A waiting predator that’s stumbles upon by a prey animal. He turns around, wants to ask the escorts to walk him down the hallway, but the doors close in his face. 

“I guess I’m on my own,” Luke grumbles to himself. 

He walks down the hallway quickly, like ripping a bacta patch off. He types in the access code he was forced to memorize and waits for the armored door to open. Luke winces at the loud screech it makes, it sounds like nails on metal, evidence this cell hasn’t been used in a long time. 

Inside, he finds the room illuminated with flickering light bulbs, just enough to chance most of the shadows away. It’s barren, aside from the metal table placed in the center and two uncomfortable chairs. Supreme Commander Vader occupies one, and his dark armor seems to suck in all the light from the room, a small black hole. Luke walks to his chair with self-confidence he doesn’t feel and sits down. 

“Lord Vader,” Luke greets, tries to make eye contact through the mask but isn’t sure he succeeds. 

“Commander Skywalker,” Vader replies. His voice in person is just as jarring as it is in holos. 

Vader watches in silence as he pulls the list of questions out of his pocket and smoothes it out on the table. Quietly, Luke wishes the Force was with him, curled around his shoulders like a tooka kitten. He never thought he was going to face Vader alone.

“So,” Luke begins, “you requested to speak with me. Why?” 

“I doubt that question is on your little list,” Vader says. 

“No, it’s not. But I think it’s something I want to know, and you’re going to tell me.” He’s spent too much time with Leia. Luke can picture Leia face-palming back on the surface. 

But, to Luke’s surprise and hesitant relief, Vader starts talking.

“You are a...high profiled enemy of the Empire,” Vader starts to explain. “Did you know I was nearly killed by a comrade of yours so you could destroy the Death Star?” Vader sits forward now, bringing his chained hands into view. A closer look reveals odd symbols carved into the cuffs, and it seems to be faintly glowing.

 _Suppression_ , the word enters his mind.

“My sources tell me you were an ordinary farmer,” Vader continues. “An ordinary farmer...that became a man wanted throughout the galaxy. Tell me, how does this happen?”

For the first time, Luke notices the camera in the corner of the room. He knew the Alliance was keeping an eye on him in some way, and as he watches it move in their direction, he hears it audibly zoom in at Vader’s question. Luke withholds a sigh. It looks like Vader isn’t the only one curious about his life choices. 

“The deal you proposed said _I’m_ the one asking questions. And what sources? Who do you have looking into my life?”

Vader tilts his head. “Yes, the deal,” he says like he was just remembering it. “Do you know what was proposed in it?”  
  
Of course, Vader would avoid those questions. “I know you specifically asked for me,” Luke begins to list off on his fingers. “I know you won’t answer any of the questions High Command gave me. I know you agreed to not kill _everyone_ on this base. It’s pretty obvious you let yourself be captured.” He sits back and tries to calm himself down. “Do I need to go on?”

“No, I think you’ve aptly explained your version of the deal.” Vader taps his gloved fingers on the table. “Interesting, isn’t it, that you say the deal is a fraud, and yet your superiors still let you near me. Why is that?”

“ _I_ told them to let me in,” Luke says. A headache is starting to build behind his eyes. “They were planning on putting you on trial, or using you as a ransom to get our comrades back.”

“Not executing me?” Vader muses, like death, is not a concern to him. To a man that has slaughtered thousands, Luke imagines death doesn’t seem like such a horrible concept. 

_Or,_ Luke thinks with a lump in his throat, like memories not his flash through his mind, _Vader doesn’t care about death when it concerns himself._

“Unfair judgment is not the way,” he says firmly. “Yes, there are people here who want to see you dead, but they do not have a say in this. Why would we allow biased people to decide someone’s fate?”

A hum of approval warps Vader’s vocoder. “That is...not a bad concept. Understand, Luke,” Vader says his name with an infliction that makes the hairs on his arms stand up. “There will always be a corrupt power if you do not keep it in check.”

“Like you keep the Senate in check? Though, the Empire has dissolved not too long ago, right?” Luke snaps, his irritation growing. “Let’s not forget your well-known mission to silence anyone causing the Empire trouble. Just like how the Jedi were massacred because the Emperor wanted them gone!”

Vader clenches his fists until the gloves he wears creaks. “The Emperor has his reasons—”

“His reasons stem from hatred,” Luke hisses. He knows he should remain silent, these are things he _should not_ know about, but he can’t help it. Listening to Vader try to defend the Emperor is— is— horrific. “The Jedi did not deserve what happened to them. The decimation of the Jedi was a tragedy. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just following Empire ideology, or letting their fear of the unknown get in the way.”

“You remind me of someone I once knew…” Vader says. The vocoder tries to smother it, but Luke can hear the notes of wistfulness in Vader’s voice. The Force gives a mournful cry to match Vader’s emotions.

Memories not his own enter his mind. A woman with a kindness that knows no bounds. She is happy, she is sad, she is annoyed, she is joyful. The last memory is of her looking at _him_ with terrified eyes, her hands grasping her throat.

Luke swallows a ball of emotion that clogs his own throat.

Vader shakes his head and pulls his emotions under lock and key. “Shall we make a deal of our own? One that you know I will uphold.”

Vader speaks the truth; he will uphold this deal. Luke hesitates, then says, “What is it?”

“Tell me what happened to your family, Luke, and I will answer the questions _you_ have for me. I’ve been told that your childhood home is in ruins. It appears that Tusken Raiders have pillaged it,” he says, something wrathful snarling in the Force around them. 

Luke grinds his teeth together. He digs his nails into his legs and resists the urge to beg the Force for help. “Why do you want to know so badly?” 

“You are a hard person to find,” Vader explains like it’s not unnerving to know the Empire is interested in his life. “One might even say you were intentionally hidden. There are no files of your birth. You don’t exist in the Empire’s database.” He leans forward and Luke fights the urge to lean back. “Surely, you can see how that would make a person curious.”

“The Empire killed my family, alright?” Luke finally spits out. “They died because they bought the wrong droids for sale. I would have died, too. But one of them escaped and I chased after him. When I got back home I found my guardians' bodies crawling out of our home, only their skeletons remained.” Tears sting the corners of his eyes and he wipes them away. “They were trying to crawl away from the destruction _your_ troopers created. Yes, your troopers. My companion might’ve almost killed, but your troopers almost killed me. I suppose that makes us even?”

The camera shatters, the pieces scattering and almost piercing him. He yelps and jolts away from the table where Vader remains sitting. In the Force, he senses the alarm and fear that emanates from the rebels. They will be sending a squad down here soon, and Luke desperately hopes Vader doesn’t kill them.

“That,” Vader rasps, “was not in the mission reports.”

The Force roars in Luke’s ears, in perfect sync with his heartbeat. “I imagine it wasn’t. After all, your troopers failed their mission. The Empire doesn’t care for a family of moisture farmers on an Outer Rim planet. We are an insignificantly small blip on your radar. Why does my life matter to you, Vader? What is so special about me that makes you seek out my history?”

“Did Kenobi tell you nothing?” Vader stands now, tall enough that his shadow reaches Luke on the other side of the room. “Did he keep your heritage a secret?”

“Ben told me all he could before you killed him!” Luke shouts at him. He wants to shake his fists at Vader as Leia does to Han when he’s being particularly hardheaded. “He didn’t have time to tell me anything! My guardians were scared he might steal me away if he came near me or told me anything! They were scared after my father—” here, Luke chokes, stumbles over his words, “my _father_ —!”

“Your...father?” Vader interrupts. Luke shivers at the feeling of eyes staring through him. “What of your father? What do you know of him?”

Luke has the stomach-churning realization that whatever he says in these next moments is critical. That it will alter the path the galaxy is on. “My guardians...they were scared that I would die, just like my father did. Lost to the stars.”

Vader steps forward, as much as he can with the table between them. “What proof did they have of his death?”

Luke gives Vader a deadpanned look, the headache he was feeling earlier coming back with a sharp throb. “A ‘friend’ of my fathers comes to them with his child and tells them of the danger I was in for just _existing_. My grandmother, Shmi,” Luke watches as the same seems to strike through Vader like a blaster bolt. “She told her family of the man who came and took her son away from slavery, to be a Jedi, even if it meant she would never see him again.” The Force sings a mournful song for her and Luke has to take a steady breath. “She missed him with her whole being. She waited for him to visit, to come home. I’m told...I’m told she did see him before she died.”

A somber feeling surrounds Vader for the first time. “This...‘friend,’ were they Kenobi?”

“Yes,” Luke admits, “though I knew him as Old Ben. Why do you care so much about him? It looked like you knew each other on the Death Star before you— before you killed him.” The grief that follows the statement is hard to swallow down. It feels like it was only yesterday that Luke watched and felt Ben leave and join the Force.

Vader steps forward, his movements jerky, and he growls when he walks right into the table. “Kenobi escaped death many times, he was a wanted Jedi,” he rushes to explain. “He was an enemy to the Empire, to me. He— stole something from me.”

_I am a person._

“Whatever he took, he didn’t deserve to die! And if he died because he’s an enemy of the Empire, then that means I have to die, too!” Luke shouts. His headache almost sends him to his knees, his anger making it pound. He doesn’t notice the damage he’s causing the cell. The chair he was sitting on, tipped over when he stood up, folds inwards until it’s a ball of jagged metal.

“You do not _understand!_ ” Vader shouts. For a moment, Luke thinks the mask almost warps to reflect the rage Vader feels. “He was just a Jedi, a wanted man, why do you care for him?”

“He was my _friend!_ Of course, I’m upset he’s gone.” Luke hurriedly blinks away the tears in his eyes. “He was my father’s friend, my only connection to him…”

“He is _not_ your only connection to your father! You do not know the truth; you’ve been lied to!” Vader snarls. The table shakes, starts to bend just like his chair, but neither pays attention.

“Oh?” Luke says, knows he’s being reckless for this stunt, but he can’t help it. “That you are my father, Anakin Skywalker? I know, I’ve always known.” 

It is the wrong thing to say. Vader turns from a black hole in the cell to _nothing_. Luke senses nothing from the armored man. He goes to speak, say something— to comfort, to distract Vader from the truth, he doesn’t know— but then the lights go out, plunging them into darkness and silence broken by Vader’s breathing.

“You _knew_ !” The cell trembles with Vader’s fury. The suppression cuffs clatter to the ground, and dread threatens to drown Luke. He knows now that Vader was only playing _nice_. But now— Vader’s presence explodes into the cell, darkness that surrounds Luke. But...but Vader’s rage doesn’t hurt him. He watches as Vader destroys the cell, rendering the table a smashed decoration in the wall, and causing the red emergency lights to start to turn on flicker. And yet, it doesn’t hurt him, only wraps around with unusual gentleness. 

Luke senses through a sea of darkness, as he is dragged to the bottom of an ocean, bright lights approaching him. The aid that Leia and High Command must have sent for him will be arriving soon, their lights moving down the elevator. Nauseating fear and crippling resignation surround the soldiers; they know the fate that awaits them for approaching Vader in a rage.

 _Distract him!_ The voice screams in his head. 

“The Force,” Luke chokes out, inching his way between Vader and the door to the elevators. “The Force told me when I was a child…”

It quiets Vader’s rage, turns it instead to apprehension. Then, like putting a stopper in the sink, Vader stops releasing his emotions. But Luke knows it boils away inside, Vader always feels so much. He stands still as he feels a brush against him in the Force, something intentional. For a moment, Luke expects his breath to come out in a mist; Vader is so cold in the Force. The nights on Tatooine are freezing. To the point, you’re more likely to die under the moons than the suns. 

Vader is like a black hole in the Force.

“You never...came to me,” Vader says quietly, despair twining around his words.

Luke forgets, sometimes, what Vader does for his family. Vader helped build the Empire for his wife and child, for their _safety_ , and when he lost them...he kept building. He made a tomb for the family he thought lost, so he can have something to remember them by.

“If I went to you...Father,” he explains, as gently as possible, “I would be dead.”

“ _No!_ ”

“Yes,” Luke insists, takes another step closer to Vader. “The Emperor would either twist me into a mindless creature or kill me because I will not turn. You _know_ I’m right. Look at what he’s done to you! The Emperor used you, built you up to tear you down. He broke you apart until you couldn’t fight him any longer! Look at your suit, it’s a death trap! A _leash!_ ”

For the first time, Luke fears his father.

Vader raises his hand, curls it up like he’s seen Vader do in the memories the Force gave him, and instinctively grasps for his throat. For a moment, invisible fingers seem to hover over him, then pull away as if burned. Something falters between them, and Vader steps back. Luke wants to say something, but the sound of the elevator landing takes the words out of his mouth. 

It is like a stampede outside the cell. Voices yell out orders and thumps are heard. Something heavy hits the door and Luke stumbles away from it, turns to see something hit the door hard enough to make it shake.

He nearly screams when hands land on his shoulders. Luke turns around and faces Vader. He winces at a loud bang against the door.

“Join me,” Vader urgently says. “We can rule the galaxy. Bring an end to my Master! You will sit on the throne, as your mother should have.”

“My mother rejected your offer. The Empire stands for everything she never wanted. You _know_ this!” Luke feels like he’s at the end of his rope. He has never been one to have the right words. He puts his foot in his mouth more than not and Leia has to scramble to get him out of the fallout. “And it’s not what I want, either. Vader, you need to let go of the past...it’s eating you up inside.”

“You do not know what you speak of—”

“Yes, I do! You’re just too scared to believe me!” Luke pleads with his father. “Please, join the Empire isn’t what I want. I would sooner die than to turn into a shadow of myself. Because that’s what the Dark side will do to me. That’s what the Emperor will do to me. Please…. Do you want to see me like that?” He fears the answer Vader will give him.

 _Do not fear_ , the Force whispers. It gently brushes a fallen tear off his cheek. _All will be well._

Vader lifts his hand and hovers it over Luke’s face. “No,” he admits, “I do not want to see you destroyed, my son.”

A shaky breath leaves Luke. “I will not go with you, Father.” A calm settles over him, something he hasn’t felt in months. “It is not my destiny. But— but you can come with me?”

Vader stands before him, unchained and silent. The pounding against the door drowns out Vader’s respirator. Any second now Luke knows they will burst open.

“There is much you don’t know, regardless of what the Force whispers in your ear.” He steps away now, and Luke feels a small part of himself, the little boy that waited for his father to come home aches. “I can not stay here, son. But I will work with you.” 

“Well,” Luke smiles wryly at his father, “that’s all I can hope for.” 

When the door is brought down, Darth Vader is gone.


End file.
